Claremont
The teacher contract, which provides a $1,250 raise for all eligible employees and a “longevity payment” of between $1,800 and $2,300 for teachers with 18 years or more with the district, already has been ratified by the Sugar River Education Association. The other unions have also ratified their respective agreements.
The contracts for the teachers, about $268,500, and administrators, about $29,700, were added to the main operating budget after they were approved by the board.
The operating budget now stands at $32.28 million, an increase of $850,000, or 2.7 percent, more than this year’s.
SAU 6 Business Manager Mike O’Neill told the board that he made reductions of about $550,000 from the initial $1 million increase that was presented to the board in December. But the contracts with the teachers and administrators offset many of the cuts.
In a presentation to the board, Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin said administrators will continue to whittle down the spending plan ahead of the Jan. 11 public hearing. The district’s Feb. 8 deliberative session is where voters can amend the budget before it goes to the annual school district vote on March 14.
“A large increase is not desirable to the community, and we are working to minimize that impact and we are trying to minimize the tax rate,” McGoodwin said.
The budget currently would add $1.23 per $1,000 of assessed valuation to the school tax rate, but McGoodwin vowed on Wednesday to bring that number down.
McGoodwin called the budget process a “balancing act” for the School Board as it tries to meet its legal obligation to provide an adequate education while being accountable to the taxpayers. The current school year’s budget required an increase in the tax rate of $1.45 per $1,000 of assessed valuation
After Wednesday’s meeting, McGoodwin said officials will make “strategic reductions” by looking at ways to teach students more efficiently. That approach could affect class size or it could mean getting rid of some programs that are not cost-effective for students, he said.
In addition to the budget increase, separate warrant articles will include three collective bargaining agreements and security upgrades. Overall, proposed spending is up $965,000.
The board also reached a separate agreement with the teachers union regarding the ongoing dispute over class scheduling at Stevens High School. The memorandum of understanding states that an alternative class schedule format, known as A/B, will not be implemented next year. (The School Board instituted the format during the 2015-16 year school but was ordered to abandon it in a ruling by the state Public Employees Relation Board.)
Instead the School Board and SREA agreed to form a committee to try to develop a “mutually desirable and fiscally responsible A/B schedule for the 2018-19 school year.” The committee, with an equal number of faculty and administrative representatives, is expected to begin meeting this month and could possibly be facilitated by a neutral third party.
Meanwhile, the School Board’s appeal to the state Supreme Court of the labor relation board’s ruling last July appears to be a long way off from being resolved. The parties could not agree to pursuing mediation as a means to possibly resolve the dispute, the attorney representing the teachers’ union said in an email on Wednesday. The court’s public information officer said transcripts for the case must be filed by Feb. 22.
The School Board has argued that it has the sole authority to set class schedules while the union has said that the block schedule format was agreed upon as part of the union’s collective bargaining agreement.
On a positive note, O’Neill said, Claremont will see an increase in adequacy aid from the state because enrollment has gone up and that increase will nearly offset a $460,000 cut in the stabilization grant. For this year, the cut in the stabilization grant added more than 50 cents to the school tax rate.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
